Yang Yi followed the crystal casting process—melting the crystal and adding burnt liquor along with some unknown liquid.After mixing thoroughly, he poured the solution into a mold to cast it into a rough cube about thirty centimeters on each edge.He planned to carve this crystal cube into a unique statue—to see if the collector who adored rare and unusual items would approve of it.Whether he succeeded or failed didn’t really matter. The deal was already made; the difference would only be in how much he got from it.And besides, Yang Yi had nothing else to trade.There was no way he’d give up the flintlock or the broken iron blade!So, he decided to give it a try—even though he had zero artistic talent, and his drawing skills were on par with a third-grader’s.Still, Yang Yi prided himself on being well-traveled and broad-minded!If he wasn’t depicting anything specific, and just went for something bizarre and grotesque, he was confident he could make something decent.Crude, clumsy, maybe—but he was sure it could give anyone with a weak mind nightmares for a night or two!That much confidence he did have.Like how long illness turns a patient into a doctor—Yang Yi, after enduring countless nightmares, had grown skilled at making others have them.He glanced at the remaining time—three hours until dawn. That should be enough.He didn’t intend to go into detail anyway; his skill level was limited, and an abstract outline would do.Meanwhile, on the other side, Suna was mixing potions, though her furrowed brows showed it wasn’t going very smoothly.Yang Yi didn’t plan to sculpt here—he needed a quiet environment for “creation.” The captain’s cabin would do nicely.Taking the crystal cube, he left the ship’s hold, crossed the deck, and entered the captain’s cabin.The skull lamp inside was lit, but not bright enough, so he scooped up a few long-legged sardines from a bucket and tossed them into the life furnace, igniting the remaining firewood.Then he took out the Sea Serpent’s Fang and began carving.He hadn’t decided on a concrete form, but he wanted the statue to be as eerie as possible—something truly unprecedented. That way, the collector would be more interested.In his mind, faint images of the Thousand-Limbed Spider Mother and the Charred Tree flickered—but vaguely.Perhaps it was a defense mechanism of the brain, blurring entities beyond human comprehension.Even so, recalling them still cost him sanity.[Attempting to recall the image of a Great Being. Sanity -10.]But through that memory, Yang Yi found the right feeling.Originally, he had planned to carve one of those two.Yet when he began, the two hazy images merged in his mind—and with some imaginative additions of his own,a completely new image was born—something that had never existed before.His carving technique was clumsy, his control poor; he often chipped or cracked the crystal by accident.But that didn’t bother him—Yang Yi thought the imperfections made it authentic.He had seen “ultimate art” before—the painting called Charred had only become a transcendent work after burning.So Yang Yi sought to imitate that.Two hours passed. Strange noises came constantly from his room—the sound of chisels and blades, the thud of objects hitting the floor, bursts of pleased laughter, and sometimes angry pounding.At some point, Yang Yi had sunk completely into his own world, intoxicated by the joy of creation.And at that moment, he understood why Suna was so obsessed with dissecting aberrations and pursuing knowledge—the thrill was utterly addictive!The crystal statue, born on a whim, gradually took form in his hands—only to be destroyed and reshaped again and again, as if venting emotion.At last, what he held was a one-of-a-kind grotesque sculpture.It was… a person.Probably.The face was twisted beyond recognition by pain, the features warped out of place.One eyeball dangled out of its socket; its condition was pitiful.Yet the longer you stared, the more it seemed to smile—its remaining eye filled with disdain and mockery, utterly ignoring its suffering flesh.Its face was cracked as if struck; fissures spread like dry earth.On its body, besides human limbs, were others that shouldn’t exist on a person: an eagle’s wings, an elephant’s trunk, an octopus’s tentacles.All of it—every part—was charred black, as though covered in burned bark.Yang Yi had spent a lot of effort creating that texture—rolling the statue in charcoal, stomping, smashing, cutting it until it looked just right.His inspiration had come from the Spider Mother and the Charred Tree—and he had successfully fused the two with his own imagination.When he finished, though, he still felt something was missing.Then his gaze fell on the burning life furnace—and inspiration struck.He tossed the crystal statue straight into the fire, letting it burn for ten seconds,then quickly pulled it out with the Sea Serpent’s Fang before it melted entirely.Perfect.Now, the statue looked as though it were still melting, caught in unbearable heat—its visual impact magnified immensely.Finally, Yang Yi was satisfied.And, like the painting before, the item even came with a system description.[Name: Unknown Statue][Description: A figure created and carved by sculptor Yang Yi, embodying madness and the despair felt before Great Beings. Possesses high collectible value.]“Sculptor Yang Yi... looks like the system knows talent when ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) it sees it.”Pleased with his first work, he was eager to see if the collector would accept it.He stored the statue in his ring and stepped out—just in time to meet Suna, emerging from below deck with a somewhat strange expression.After spending so much time together, Yang Yi had learned to read her microexpressions.“Seems like... confusion?”Suna walked up to him and handed him two bottles of potion.One Yang Yi recognized—it was the Sleeping Potion.The other, however, was different: reddish-brown and murky, with tiny floating spheres—likely fire banana seeds.[Name: Unknown Potion][Type: Consumable / Potion / Unique][Quality: ??][Description: You’ll only know what it does once you drink it...]Now, all the items for the trade with the collector were ready.They went to the foredeck. The collector was still there, seemingly unmoved from before.Suna studied him closely from head to toe, but in her vision there were no control strings,and beneath his robes was only darkness—firelight couldn’t even pierce it.Yang Yi sat down, as before, and began handing over the trade goods one by one.Each item was accepted by the collector.Until the final one—Yang Yi produced the grotesque statue.[You gaze upon a statue of ultimate pain and torment. Sanity -10.]Suna was startled. She hadn’t expected Yang Yi to trade that thing.“He carved this himself? Then…” Her expression darkened.The collector paused for a moment, then picked up the statue for a closer look.At that instant, Yang Yi found the perfect angle and snapped a photo—capturing the statue, the seated collector, and part of the traded goods in one frame.A few seconds later, a log prompt appeared:[The Collector is extremely pleased with this item. Remaining trade count: 0.]

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